


Night Times

by catcusxx



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Friendship, Season 1, Team Bonding, between two people but close
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 15:59:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17625413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catcusxx/pseuds/catcusxx
Summary: M'gann is determined to find a hobby... at three in the morning.Superboy somehow ends up helping her.





	Night Times

Superboy wasn't just used to silence. He needed it. Noise drilled into his thoughts and disrupted his sleep. There was an issue with that, of course, because of his super hearing. He'd almost learned to ignore the scuffling of mice running about the base or the soft breathing of M'gann as she slept nearby. The way she breathed as she slept was comforting. The intake of air was almost silent and yet filled his mind with images of wisps of hair fluttering around her face and eyelashes resting against her cheek. It was peaceful.  
Tonight she was pacing. The steady tick-tock of her feet was, for some reason, much more difficult to ignore.   
He half closed his eyes and watched the faint movement of the shadows on the wall. His sleeping quarters had no windows, yet there was always light. The faint whispering of the shadows was soothing, but tonight they seemed to move to the beat of M'gann's pacing feet.  
He should be able to ignore it as he ignored the other faint night time sounds and yet the faint thump echoed in his skull. They awoke thoughts inside him, set his mind spinning, as he wondered what could possibly be keeping her up. She seemed carefree. A little too eager to please and a little too impulsive, yet nothing seemed to bother her for long.  
For a brief moment the footsteps stopped and he let himself relax. Then they started up again and he felt himself tense up, his fists clenching in frustration. Finally, he stood up and followed her footsteps.  
He found her in the kitchen, walking in aimless circles. A glass of water sat on the counter top but she seemed to have no interest in drinking it.   
He cleared his throat, "M'gann?"   
She jumped and then shot him a smile which was half apologetic, half nervous.   
"Hey Superboy."   
"Look... Uhm..." He scratched the back of his neck, trying to find a way to tell her she was keeping him up. He was unsure how it would go down.   
"Oh." She stopped pacing and grabbed her glass of water. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise it would keep you up."   
"Did you read my mind?" He asked defensively.   
"No? Well I mean, a little." She said sheepishly.   
"Please don't." He said. He wanted her to understand how much it bothered him - how much he feared it, but the tone in his voice disgusted him.   
"It was a reflex, it looked like it was really bothering you." She downed the glass and put it in the dishwasher. "I'm not good at the whole... Earth thing."   
"Neither." He said ruefully, glad she hadn't picked up on his fear. He couldn't be Superboy if he was scared.  
"I just... I don't know... Today didn't go wonderfully. I'm not like Flash or Aquaman or Robin even though I really want to be. I just don't know if I fit on the team." She sighed. Superboy leaned on the countertop, her words resonating with him. "I thought fitting in would be easy - acting human would be easy, because Uncle J'onn brought me TV shows and books and everything but nothing really prepared me for, well, this."   
"You really didn't do... That badly." He said with a half smile. �"It was a disaster! And I'm an optimist." She said, smiling back. He wasn't sure why - she was insulting herself after all. He had even less of an idea why he himself was smiling. He didn't want her to think he enjoyed her failure. They'd already gotten off to a rocky start, even if she didn't seem to be holding it against him.   
"So how are you doing?" She asked, leaning on the counter top facing him.   
She was wearing a headband to keep her hair from her eyes and her clothing had morphed back to the pink skirt and top. She looked at ease.   
He shrugged, "fine." He said. There didn't seem to be another answer to that question but he almost wished there was.   
M'gann nodded. She seemed to know that he didn't want the conversation to end just yet.   
"Do you wanna help me with something?" She asked suddenly straightening up as if she were already sure he'd follow.   
"Depends what?"   
"I'm trying to find a hobby. The baking was a failure, so I thought I'd try painting or something."   
"Maybe you need to keep practicing?" He suggested.   
"Maybe..." She said, looking around the kitchen thoughtfully.   
"Did you enjoy it?"   
"Hmm?"   
"The baking, did you like it? Because that's the important part, right?" He wasn't sure where that line had come from but it sparked a change in M'gann.   
"You know, I kind of like that." She said, "if I watch them this time they won't burn."   
"Wait, you're going to do this now?" He asked, blinking sleepily.   
M'gann had already opened out a cookbook and was stacking ingredients beside it. Everything halted in mid-air when she turned to him.   
"Hello M'gann! I forgot you need nine hours sleep, don't you?"   
"Uh, yeah? That's kind of standard."  
Her face fell and the ingredients she had floating in mid-air dropped slightly.   
"Right," she said, opening the fridge again with a flick of her hand.   
Superboy wasn't sure why her doleful expression had such a large effect on him. He didn't understand why she was so anxious to find a hobby, or why it had to be late at night, but he found himself shrugging.   
"Would you rather try painting for tonight?" He offered. Surely painting wouldn't take nearly as long.   
"You'll help?" She asked hopefully.   
This was more than he'd bargained for, "I probably won't be much good." He said.   
"Come on," M'gann said, her eyes wide and hopeful.  
And that was how Superboy ended up helping her paint a picture of a bowl of fruit in the middle of the night. It was a very different activity from what he was used to, and yet he found that really, he didn't mind M'gann's restlessness.   
Night time really was the best time to create, after all.


End file.
